In Another Life
by Marissalyn
Summary: Two strangers that try and get the same apartment, and end up sorting out a roommate deal.
1. The Meeting

"You sure you want to do this, L? This girl could be a psychopath for all we know." LaF's voice came through the other end of the phone.

"Then I'll be murdered in my sleep. I can't live at home anymore, I need to get out."

LaF knew this, they had sat up many nights when they could be skyping Perry, to listen to her go on and on about how suffocating her father was.

"Well, I guess go for it then. It's a good thing you're meeting her for coffee first."

Laura nodded her head along to what her friend was saying. She looked at the clock on the dash and interrupted them, "I've got to go in now, don't want to be late and leave a bad impression."

"I'll talk to you later then, don't get eaten."

Laura went to say she wouldn't, when she heard LaF chuckle to themselves. "I'm hanging up now." Laura said, hitting the end call button. She sighed, leaning back against the headrest. In the next five minutes she would be meeting her possible new roommate.

XXX

Twenty minutes, the girl was twenty minutes late.

Laura figured that she decided against having a roommate after all and just wasn't going to show for obvious reasons. She was just about ready to stand up, throw out her second hot chocolate, and go home. When LaF asked later about how it went, she would say that the girl and she just didn't get along. Maybe she would even call her a psychopath.

She was about ready to do all of this, when someone sat down; scratch that, flopped down into the chair opposite her.

Laura needed a minute, or ten to take all of her in.

The brunette looked at her as if she knew exactly what she was thinking. How could she not though with all of that skin-tight leather and see-through shirt? Her eyes were rimmed with black eyeliner, eyelashes perfectly splayed. Her eyes were dark, almost entirely pupil as she looked Laura up and down. It reminded Laura of a wolf that hadn't eaten for days; that or like a giant black cat to match her attire.

Laura cleared her throat, holding her hand out to shake, "Laura Hollis."

The brunette stared at her hand long enough that Laura started to awkwardly retract it, just as the girl snatched it up when she nearly had it back at her side, pulling it back toward the middle of the table to limply shake. It was an odd gesture, one that if Laura wasn't so caught up in her appearance, would have catalogued it as creepy and wrote it on the list of reasons not to move in with this attractive stranger.

"Carmilla Karnstein." She said, and oh boy that voice. It was the perfect combination of rasp and sex. The girl herself was dripping sex appeal; not only in her appearance, but the way she carried herself as well.

Carmilla leaned back in her seat, one arm draped over the back, while the other was lying flat on the table. For someone not much taller than her, she sure liked to take up space. Everything about her screamed rebellion and the typical 'bad girl,' but the twitch in her lip would give away how uncomfortable she was.

Laura didn't notice that though, in fact she was hell-bent on making sure Carmilla knew she had been waiting for her. "I figured when we had agreed on three, we'd both be here at three."

Carmilla looked back from where she was peering over at the register. "Do you want to get something?" she asked as if she hadn't heard Laura at all.

Laura blinked, a vein stretching out against the skin of her neck. "I already had two hot chocolates while waiting for you." There was a bite in her tone, one that would remind you of a tiny dog yapping at a much larger one.

Carmilla's expression didn't change; where guilt normally would have been was amusement. "Suit yourself, I'm going to get a coffee."

Laura watched Carmilla get up and walk over to the counter. She may have had imaginary steam coming out of her ears and nose, but she didn't fail to stare at her leather-clad ass as it sashayed away. She shook her head; she couldn't believe this. Here she was thinking that the person she was going to meet had even just the slightest degree of thoughtfulness to show up on time and be a slightly decent human being, and she is gifted with the queen of snark, or more likely the up and coming punk version of Aphrodite.

Carmilla sat down a couple minutes later, slurping noisily at her coffee. Now that she was back and Laura wasn't stunned by her looks, she was able to take in the safety pins that were stuck in her ears as makeshift earrings, and one of the boots she was wearing had paint splatters on the toe of it; a painter maybe? Laura was growing more desperate every moment that the silence continued. She really wanted this apartment.

Carmilla looked up from her coffee, one brow raised in question when she saw Laura staring hard at her ear. "It's a safety pin, surely you've seen one before." She said; the words clipped to leave no room for interpretation. She didn't mind the ogling, but when people started looking at her like they owed her some form of pity towards the way she chose to dress, that's when she lost her patience, and any ounce of understanding.

Laura's eyes slid away from Carmilla's ear and somewhere near her chin. "Sorry."

Carmilla shrugged, flipping the top off of her coffee and drinking it from the brim instead, not caring when she came away with a foam mustache. She brushed it away with her thumb before licking it off. "It's all good, cutie." she said casually, the iciness in her tone gone.

Laura's lip twitched at the nickname, something that Carmilla noticed as she leaned forward in her chair and set her cup down. "You've never lived on your own, have you?" she asked.

Laura fidgeted, trying to focus on how Carmilla lacked any form of manners, slurping her coffee, being late, and ignoring her when she spoke. There was already enough reasons for Laura to get up, walk out, and forget the apartment all together; she could find another place. Carmilla was rude and arrogant and messy. All of this Laura picked up in just the ten minutes they've been sitting together. Laura didn't like her at all, maybe even beginning to hate her a little bit. She wanted this apartment though, she wanted to prove to everyone back at home that she could handle being on her own, she wanted to prove to herself that she could be on her own. Laura decided in that moment that no matter what Carmilla did to get her not to take the roommate contract (which is what she had to be doing, nobody is this rude when meeting someone for the first time), she would ignore the purposeful jabs, allowing herself to be the metaphorical punching bag her father had taught her not to be, in order to land this apartment deal.

"No, I haven't." She said, looking down at her fingers as she played with the edges of a napkin. She looked up again to make eye contact. She would not come off as weak in this situation. She had spent enough time being viewed as the lesser of two. She was her own person, not just a name attached to the end of her father's name. It was moments like this that she missed her mother most.

Carmilla continued to watch Laura, looking closer like she was cracking a code or trying unsuccessfully to solve a Sudoku puzzle, before nodding her head. "You got a deal."

Laura sat up straight, what? It was that easy? "Wait, really?" she found herself asking.

Carmilla nodded, standing up from her seat and stretching, her pierced navel visible as the shirt lifted the slightest bit before settling back down at the hip. Laura needed to divert her eyes, if only to be able to tell herself later that she wasn't that attracted to her new roommate.

Carmilla reached into a back pocket and tossed a key onto the table. "Move in whenever you want, rent is due the first."

Laura opened her mouth to speak, but when she tore her eyes away from the intricately carved metal, Carmilla was already halfway out of the cafe's door, the bell ringing to announce her departure.

Laura leaned back in her chair, not even finding it in herself to care as she turned the key over in her hand, a melded 307 embossed into the head of it. She was ready for this, now she just had to tell her dad.


	2. Moving Day

"You're moving out?" Ric Hollis asked confusedly as he stared at his daughter across the dinner table.

Laura sighed, staring down at her plate, "Sometimes I feel like you don't listen to me when I talk." Mostly because he was always so worried about her safety, he spent little to no time trying to get to know his daughter past age 6 when her mother died.

"I thought you were just upset about the new house rules, I didn't think you were actually going to move out." Ric said, his voice closer to sadness than his usual fear.

Laura shook her head, looking up at her father, "I'm serious Dad, I found a place to live in the city, and I'll have a roommate around my age and don't worry, she's a girl." 19 years old, and Laura was still in the closet to her father, sometimes she feared that she would never be able to come out to him, not because he would act different, but because he would just find more things to worry about.

"In the city?" Ric exclaimed, nearly choking on his dinner.

Laura knew this was going to happen, ever since she had turned thirteen and started to show an interest towards New York City, she had gotten lecture upon lecture about what happened in the city, at night or otherwise. She knew that if it were up to him, she would live at home forever in New Jersey. This wasn't going to be a decision she would allow him to make for her, she was moving out tomorrow morning. "Yes." she said, answering his question while also keeping her emotions under control. If she overreacted now, she would be giving him more reason and more ammo to use against her reasoning for moving out.

"I don't know about this, Laura." Ric began.

Laura cut him off, "You don't have to know anything Dad, I'm moving out. I'm nineteen now, and I want to be closer to what I want to spend the rest of my life doing, which is journalism. You can't necessarily be a big time reporter in New Jersey."

"No, but you could be a local news anchor! You'd be great at that, and it would be so close knit, you'd know everyone personally."

Laura avoided pulling a face. It wasn't that she didn't want to work somewhere small, it was the fact that she wouldn't make as a big a difference if she stayed local. She wanted to follow her dreams, and get heartbroken in the process. She wanted to fuck up, and cry over stupid girls and drink and eat to her heart's content in the back of dimly lit bars and diners. She wanted the whole New York experience that you see in movies. She wanted the whole 20s experience where you live from paycheck to paycheck and try not to die in between. She wanted to forget to pay her heating bill and spend a night bundled up in ten hoodies and fifteen blankets. Laura wanted to piss off her roommate, and she wanted to make new friends who aren't the best influence on her.

Laura wanted it all, and all that she wanted would not be found in her small hometown. She was moving out whether her father liked it or not, whether she had to steal away in the middle of the night. She was getting out while she could, before her father could drain her with all of his fears and uncertainties. She was moving to New York City, and she was going to make a name for herself.

XXX

Laura pulled her suitcases from the back of her car, LaF right behind her with two boxes stacked in their arms.

"What the hell is in these boxes?" They asked, as Laura held the door to the apartment building open for them to walk through first.

"Just some of my books and laptop."

"Some?" LaF asked sarcastically, as they made their way over to the elevator.

"The elevator doesn't work." Laura said over her shoulder as she started up the stairs.

LaF groaned, hefting the boxes into a more comfortable position in their arms. "Why did you have to get an apartment on the third floor?"

Laura rolled her eyes, "It could've been the sixth."

"I need my arms for science!" They complained from where their face was hidden behind a box.

Laura shook her head as she made it to the third floor and unlocked the door. Loud music enveloped her as she entered, LaF following in a minute later out of breath. "How are you not wanting to die right now? All you eat is cookies." They grumbled.

Laura sighed, assuming her door was the one that was left open at the end of the hall. Passing the room with eardrum bursting music practically vibrating the floor, she placed what she had in her new room.

LaF practically dropped everything as soon as they reached the doorway. "So I'm guessing your broody roomie is the one behind the noise." They deadpanned.

Laura nodded, storming back down the hallway and out the door to grab more things from the car. She had not even officially been in the apartment for an hour and she already wanted to strangle her new roommate and possibly stuff her body into a trash bag and toss it into the river.

A few hours later LaF left Laura to settle in around three hours after Laura realized that Carmilla had the same song on repeat. She was starting to think that Carmilla either wasn't home, or just really hated her.

XXX

Laura was about to blow a gasket when her suspicions were proven to be true.

Carmilla came through the front door with a bulky box under one arm, and a much thinner longer one in the opposing hand. A scowl was already present on her face, as well as a pink slip of paper between her teeth.

Carmilla walked around her and towards her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. A moment later the music was turned off, just as Carmilla reemerged from her room, still avoiding eye contact.

Laura watched her move into the kitchen and pull and a can of soda. She could sense the anger practically radiating off of the woman, but she didn't care.

Carmilla chuckled as she slurped loudly from her can.

Laura practically exploded, clenching her hands into fists by her sides, her entire body vibrating. "Why do you purposely try to piss me off?"

Carmilla smirked, setting her soda down as she leaned back on the counter. "I pissed you off the first time, I figured why not make it tradition?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm as her eyes scanned over Laura's face. "Besides, that bunched up face you make when you're angry, is hilarious buttercup."

"My name's Laura!"

Carmilla chuckled as she sauntered back into her room, Laura could continue to chew her out tomorrow. It had been a long and tiring day.


	3. Roommate Woes

Carmilla woke with a start, her heart hammering against her ribcage. Her clothes were drenched in sweat, her sheets sticking to her legs as she stared out into the darkness of her room. Letting out a heaving breath, she untangled her legs and stepped out of her room and into the hallway. It was somewhere past three in the morning, and she would be up for the rest of the night.

She found Laura sleeping on the couch and sighed. Without much thought, she grabbed the comforter from her bed and covered her with it. She assumed that Laura hadn't put her bed together yet, and was just camping out on the couch for the night. Carmilla rolled her eyes as she turned and headed out into the night. She would be back before Laura even woke up.

XXX

"Fuck!"

Laura woke up, quickly sitting up and looking around the room to find Carmilla hopping around on one foot while holding the other in her hands. "Fucking-fuckity-fuck-fuck!" She hissed between her teeth as Laura fought and lost the urge to laugh.

Carmilla whipped her head around to look at Laura sheepishly before re-masking to one of irritation.

"You okay?" Laura asked around a giggle as she took in the paint cans next to where Carmilla stood, clearly trying to fight the flush that was beginning to creep up her neck and into her cheeks.

"I'm fine." She said gruffly before picking up the paint cans she had dropped. "I'm painting the living room today, so don't choke on the fumes. I don't need a dead body on my hands."

Laura gapped at the still very present anger as she thought over what she had just told her. She leaned up on her knees and hung over the back of the couch, "What color are you painting it?"

Carmilla popped off one of the tops with something on her keychain. "Red."

"Don't you think I should get a say in what color our living room is?" Laura asked.

Carmilla flinched at the use of 'our'. The last time she had heard that it was beneath hands she loved, hands she had trusted. She grew bitter by the memory, glaring at Laura as she bit out, "My name's first on the lease and I had the apartment first, so red is what this room will be."

So that's how they both ended up painting one side of the room. What was even more frustrating for Carmilla was the fact that Laura's beige complemented her red.

They both had changed into clothes that could or already had been ruined and painted for a few hours without any conversation at all. It was around the same time Laura reached Carmilla's side, that she spoke, "You're a pretty angry person." It wasn't a question and it wasn't an accusation, it was merely an observation.

Carmilla froze at the sound of her voice, her hand with the brush wavering as paint dripped off of it and onto the tip of her boot.

Laura's eyes flicked down to the splotched paint now accompanied by other dry splatters. When Carmilla didn't respond she continued to say, "You're a painter aren't you?"

Again Carmilla hesitated, thinking of a time not long ago when she used to paint constellations on arms and legs, kissing patterns into skin that now burned from the lack of care; from the lack being here. She closed her eyes, breathing hard before going back to painting. "Don't know what you mean, sweetheart."

Laura shook her head, looking at Carmilla's perfect painting and then back to her own less than adequate painting job, "Do you paint for work or as a hobby?"

Carmilla blew air up at her bangs that were beginning to stick to her forehead from sweat, "You just don't quit do you?"

"I'm going to be a journalist, it's what we do."

Carmilla chuckled, "You mean a brownnoser?" She leaned down to dip her brush back into her paint can as she continued in a more hushed voice. "Both."

Laura was almost stunned to get an answer. She quickly picked up her jaw before saying, "Was that so hard?"

Carmilla's own jaw clenched as she let her brush slip from her fingers and back into the can. "Actually it was, considering you are nothing more than a stranger to me. That's what we punks do, we quit before we can even start."

Laura froze, watching as Carmilla stormed over to the door before looking back, "Since we're roommates and all, don't wait up." the slamming of the door echoing throughout the apartment being the end of their conversation.

XXX

Laura did wait up though. She sat worried on how she was going to fix the mess she had created. Adulthood wasn't turning out the way she thought it would. The room was full of paint fumes, and she was sitting alone in the dark on a Friday night.

The door opened to reveal Carmilla who was trying to be quiet as she slipped out of her boots.

Laura pondered speaking, but chose against it and instead pretended to have fallen asleep on the couch. She was confused though when she didn't hear the sound of Carmilla's door opening and closing. Instead, she was met with a whispered, "Lack wit." Before a soft blanket was draped over her. A moment later, Carmilla's door was shut.

Laura sat up, the blanket pooling around her waist as she stared confusedly at the closed door. Maybe Carmilla wasn't as much of a quitter as she claimed to be.


	4. Memory Lane

"What the frilly hell is this?" Carmilla asked from the kitchen doorway as she towel dried her hair.

"You know, for someone so brooding, you'd think you'd have a much darker vocabulary."

Carmilla opened her mouth to reply just as Laura continued to speak. "I'm kidding. It's an apology breakfast."

Carmilla's eyes flicked around the room; there were dirty dishes in the sink, pans on the stove, and food on the counter. She looked back at the shorter girl and met her eyes, "I don't eat breakfast."

Laura frowned, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth as a crease formed between her brows.

Carmilla spoke again, "Don't hurt yourself, cutie. Punks can kid too." She was lying to make her feel better, that could only mean bad things. Carmilla had lied for iher/i.

Laura's face washed over with relief as she smiled, "I made both eggs and waffles cause I wasn't sure which you like better." They knew nothing about each other, and Laura was hoping that this breakfast would be the beginning of changing just that.

Carmilla smirked, "Well I'm allergic to eggs."

Laura's face paled, she thought Carmilla having no eggs in the fridge was because she didn't really cook. "So waffles?" she asked, biting her lip and hoping she shouldn't have made pancakes.

Carmilla nodded slowly, stepping further into the room and tentatively took the proffered plate from her roommate's hands.

She could barely remember the last time she had breakfast with someone, but she certainly remembered her last joyful one.

XXX

iCarmilla bounded down the stairs as she headed towards the kitchen. Mother Morgan was out of town, which meant Corina was in charge.

"Good morning, Milla." A woman adorn in a deep red maid uniform greeted with her back turned towards her.

"Morning Corina."

"Big day today isn't it with Ell coming over?" Corina asked as she sat a plate of food on the table.

Carmilla smiled to herself, "Yes, I'm going to show her some of my paintings."

Corina grinned, eyebrows rose in surprise, "This Ell must really be something then, huh?" She looked around the kitchen to make sure everything was in order before sitting down across from Carmilla.

Carmilla nodded, smiling thoughtfully. "I'm going to ask her to be my girlfriend today, I think."

Corina chuckled softly as she watched Carmilla dig into her pancakes. "You think?"

Carmilla shrugged, wiping the syrup from her lip as she took a sip from her orange juice. "I won't know if I'll want to date her until after I show her my art."

Corina nodded, understanding. "So basically you don't want her to react like Mother Morgan did."

Carmilla frowned slightly, looking down at her plate.

Mother Morgan, the woman who had adopted Carmilla at the age of fourteen, was never home. She was of high importance in the business industry, and that was all she had ever been willing to tell Carmilla. When she was home, she would be home for mere hours, barely able to get a word in with her new daughter before having to fly out again to some mysterious city that she never informed anyone of. She hated Carmilla's creative mind, she had even told her so once when she had come home for lunch before returning to the airport. "Carmilla, you're mind is too left sided for me, you must learn to take things seriously and improve in things that matter if you plan to have any life at all after you leave here." As if she didn't plan on associating with her after her high school graduation.

Carmilla had listened to her intently, but because of her late adoption, she had trouble wanting to conform or listen really to any parental figure that didn't give her reason to. That's why she loved Corina. The maid that Mother Morgan had hired specifically to look after Carmilla, Corina had later told her. She was a woman in her late forties, with a husband and three children of her own that she only got to see on Sunday afternoons according to her schedule that somehow made it to her every Monday morning, printed and laminated on her nightstand. It was the first thing she saw when she woke up, and it was the last thing she ever concerned herself with before going to bed. That was after she made sure Carmilla was sleeping soundly in her room.

On Carmilla's first few months at the Morgan Mansion, she couldn't sleep. Nightmares of what her life was like in the foster homes and her life before the adoption agency still fresh in her mind. After a delayed flight, and Mother Morgan's distaste for abnormality that was formatted to night terrors, Carmilla had been sentenced to a therapist's couch two times a week.

Carmilla leaned back in her chair, sighing at a full stomach and the hope of a possible future with Ell, at her love for her artwork, and the fact that Mother Morgan wasn't due back until the end of the month. Life was good for Carmilla at the moment, and it was rare and far in between that she actually felt content in where she was./i

XXX

Carmilla shook off the memory of Mother Morgan returning home early from her "business trip" and finding Carmilla explaining to Ell one of her paintings while holding her hand. She shook off the image of Mother Morgan lashing out on her and driving Ell away. She tried to forget not being able to see Ell again until the summer had ended and she was back in school, by that time Ell was more grown up and hanging off an upperclassmen boy's arm. Carmilla clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, willing to dismiss the recollection of what it felt like to come second to the one person she had always put first.

"So did you grow up around here?" Laura asked a moment later, eating a forkful of pancake.

Carmilla looked up from where she was staring hard at her own breakfast, jolted from her thoughts, she didn't give much thought before speaking, "You could say that."


End file.
